Travis Barker quotes:

I wanted to say thanks... and share my gratitude for everything I've been blessed with. Family, friends, and continued support from everyone.

Thank you for life, and all the little ups and downs that make it worth living.

All I wanted to do was ride skateboards - I wanted to be a professional skateboarder. But I had this problem. I kept breaking half of my body skateboarding.

I'm a freak, everything has to be totally flat when I play. Ed Will, my jazz teacher, set up everything completely flat, and then you'd tilt your snare drum away from you, so I do that too. So my snare tilts away from me.

And I was in another band called Flash In The Pan, which was soca, Latin music, down in Laguna Beach.

I play Orange County drums. I love those guys. I've got a four piece kit.

My mom listened to the Beatles and Elvis, a lot of different types of music.

If we play to first time Blink 182 listeners, it's good they are listening to us and not the Backstreet Boys. Old Fans or new fans, it's all the same to us.

Bill Stevenson of The Descendants is really good, too.

When I look at music, everything is blurred, and I like it that way. I grew up like that, hanging out with different types of people who listened to so many different types of music. I never wanted to be part of any one clique. I loved it all.

My mom passed away a day before high school started, and her dream was for me to be a full rock and roll guy, and play drums in a band.

I think putting your relationship out there for people to interpret and have their own opinion about, I think it's crazy.

I've been vegan since I got out of the hospital... It's another eye opener. It changed my life in a number of ways.

Once in a while, I'll slip and get off my vegan diet and have egg whites in the morning, that's a good source of protein while I'm out on the road. If I can feel my body starting to tire, those are good to keep you healthy.

I guess YouTube is the new destination spot for music videos. That's where I go.

In junior high, I sang in madrigals, men's' and women's' choir. I played piano too, but then I got out of it.

There's a lot more responsibility at home, so a tour is like the opposite for me. It's like a breath of fresh air.

I need protein from food rather than just protein supplements. I changed my diet.

We all write the music, and then Mark and Tom write the lyrics.

It's something I want to overcome. And my kids are scared to death to fly. I want them to witness me overcome it.

I was told once if I kept breaking things on my legs, that I wasn't going to be able to walk soon, you know? I wanted to be a pro skateboarder, but it was too hard. I was trying, but it wasn't going to happen.

My biggest fear ever is to be involved in a plane crash, so when that happened... well, I'm just thankful to be alive. I'm just grateful to be here at all.

My mom died when I was 16. I had a rough childhood, you know what I mean, but it made me strong.

Usually, if I'm coming to Europe, I'm on a boat for seven days, so I spend the seven days doing a bunch of things. I'll do cardio for an hour or an hour-and-a-half and weights, just light weights.

We were concerned with having good songs, not just songs that go two hundred miles per hour.

In the hospital, I promised myself that I ever walked again, that I would eat well and swim every day.

I looked Death right in the face.

I love tour, but I don't like traveling at night or driving long hours. But I love touring. If my kids could be out there full time, I'd probably never go home.

I used to have friends come on tour and work as my drum tech, but they get bummed out when I have to tell them what to do. This time I`m just going to fly them out and let them hang. It`s all good.

We just wrote songs that seemed good to us. We wrote the album in like two weeks. We could have had more time, but we accomplished what we needed to in the two weeks.

I was playing with the Aquabats, and then I quit to join a band called Suicide Machine in Detroit.

I`ve always liked Dennis Chambers, he`s real flashy.

With rock music, it usually revolves around the band. You go in as a band and probably take about a year to record an album. But for a hip-hop song, you can create a track and an idea with verses and choruses in a day, and get three different people on it. It seems like you're able to do more with hip-hop.

I try to do an hour of cardio on the days that I have off, and then I'll do 30 to 45 minutes on show days. That's the first thing I do when I wake up, I have breakfast and then I'll hit the gym.

I listened a little to punk when I was younger, but it was straight edge punk. It was nothing like what is going on now, like poppy punk.

A lot of people think that punk rock musicians don't know what they're doing.

I can play punk rock, and I love playing punk rock, but I was into every other style of music before I played punk rock.

I listen to everything from jazz to reggae to heavy metal and I kind of combine everything to make something different

I learned the songs and played the gigs, and then they called me about a month later. They told me they were like super stoked on me and asked me to join their band.

But there's actually a lot of punk bands out there that go out of the norm, use odd time signatures, or a lot of different tempo changes in a song.

Oh, I was super serious about practicing and rudiments, and still am. I still have all my books.

Then I tried out for the Fontana High School drum line, in Riverside, and I did really well. I got second chair, and played snare in that drum line for three years.

I like Steve Gadd, everything he did with Steely Dan. There's so many. I like everything.

But really, anytime, I play on a practice pad as much as I can.

We never worry about the big things, just the small things.

I used to have friends come on tour and work as my drum tech, but they get bummed out when I have to tell them what to do. This time I'm just going to fly them out and let them hang. It's all good.

I've always liked Dennis Chambers, he's real flashy.

My chops are still up, even though I'm not still in high school.

And I played in jazz band as well during all three years in school.

In 1996, I was in was in an acoustic kind of rock band, we were called Feeble. We were just playing locally.

I'm super serious about that stuff. I mean, it's rare that I sit down at a drum set when I'm not touring, because we tour so much.

I want to keep pushing the limits for drummers and expressing myself.

Playing my drums is therapy.

I was a kid, and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to play the drums, you know? All I wanted to do was skateboard, but I was still learning and taking it in, so it was good.

We just wanted to write a bunch of songs that we thought were good songs.

The whole time after you record an album, you're just waiting for the release date. You're waiting for fans to hear it and stuff.

I practice every day, I warm up before I play.

Anything that has to do with rock seems to be on the decline. There's not a lot of rock stations or MTV anymore, you just go on Youtube.

Express yourself, put stuff down on tape, and see what lives.

I don't like traveling, period. I like being at places and I like going places, but I don't like forms of transportation.

I have my kids every Friday through Monday, and I don't leave them the whole time I have them.

I juice a lot; I get as much protein as I can, because being a vegan, there isn't much protein. But that's pretty much it. I just drink lots of water, too. I'll have a protein shake as well every morning.

I run every day now. I never ran before.

I tattooed my body so I couldn't fall back on anything. I purposely did that so I couldn't get a normal job and live a normal life. I did it so I had to play music.

I think punk, pop-punk, and rock music is all meshed together and I think good music is good music.

I want a certain thing for my children. I just want to be in their life. I don't want nannies raising my kids.

I want to beat the world record for the number of beats per second on a drum pad.

I want to keep pushing the limits for drummers and expressing myself,

I was in a band called Hooker for a while.

I'm obsessed with my children.

It seems like I have more in common - or hit it off better - with rappers than fools that are in rock music. It was always natural for me.

I've always loved playing in bands where there's like three or four people and we're all throwing out ideas and coming together to make an album.

My chops are still up, even though I`m not still in high school.

On tour, you never have a home, you don`t get used to anything, and you`re always super busy.

Put me up in front of a million people and ask me to speak. I'll flop. But put me behind my drums and I'll always go with it.

Take care of your colon and your colon will take care of you.